1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electronic commerce and intellectual property transactions, and more particularly, to a system and method for approving sponsorships by a sponsor, for completing agreements concerning the terms and conditions for using content protected by the sponsor, and for downloading and monitoring the use of the protected content.
2. Background of the Invention
Large corporations entertain many requests for charitable donations. These requests ask a corporation to sponsor a charitable organization or event by contributing money or other resources (e.g., employee time). For practical reasons, the corporation cannot agree to every request, and therefore must be selective in deciding which causes to support. In making this choice, the corporation therefore favors charities that promote causes and values aligned with the corporation's own interests, and that generate positive perceptions of the corporation within the community.
In general, the requests for charitable donations come in two varieties, depending on the size of the donation and the potential for publicity. The first type of request asks for a title or flagship sponsorship, which typically involves a large contribution by the corporation and a marquee advertisement of the corporation's participation. This sponsorship is often a part of an ongoing relationship between the corporation and charity, such as an annual sponsorship of a walk-a-thon or benefit dinner. For example, the BellSouth Corporation annually sponsors the BellSouth Classic PGA golf tournament, the proceeds of which benefit several charities. In the year 2000, for example, the tournament donated $700,000 to the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
The second type of donation request asks for a small sponsorship. These requests typically ask for small donations, associated with isolated, one-time events. As an example, Troop 288 of the Atlanta Area Council Boy Scouts of America may request from the BellSouth Corporation a sponsorship of $1,000 for a wilderness camp outing.
The amount of effort that the corporation expends in responding to these donation requests depends on whether the request is for a title sponsorship or a small sponsorship. For title sponsorships, with their sizeable donations and significant publicity, corporations devote considerable time and effort to crafting a detailed agreement with the charitable organization. These title sponsorships often involve large, well-organized charities that possess the resources and expertise to handle these formalities. Typically, the parties enter into a formal written agreement that stipulates the terms of the sponsorship, including details such as the amount to be donated by the corporation and how the corporation will be recognized in materials promoting the event. The agreements are consummated through one-on-one telephone conversations and face-to-face meetings between representatives of the corporation and the charity.
A key aspect of these agreements is the use of the corporation's intellectual property, such as trademarks, logos, advertising, collateral materials, and copyrighted materials. To protect such property, the corporation must diligently guard against violations of, for example, its trademarks and copyrighted materials. More specifically, for a trademark owner to maintain rights in its trademark, the owner must ensure the consistent use of the trademark, including characteristics such as color, font, and spelling. The corporation is therefore careful to specify the conditions under which the charity can use the corporation's trademarks and logos. As an example, these guidelines may prohibit the alteration or adaptation of its logos, and may specify what prominence the corporation's logos should assume in relation to other logos promoting the charitable event. These trademark and logo policies establish the corporation's interest in its marks and create a record of due diligence, which is useful for any future enforcement actions against infringers or challengers.
In addition to distributing official trademarks and logos and the guidelines for their use, a corporation can also regularly monitor the use of the trademarks and logos to establish a stronger record of due diligence. In the prior art, corporations typically accomplish such monitoring by, for example, asking the charities for samples of how the trademarks or logos appear in promotional materials. Charities typically provide these samples in a number of conventional ways, including mailings and facsimile transmissions.
For title sponsorships, the corporation is able to address these matters of intellectual property on an individual basis because of the considerable resources devoted to establishing the relationship with the charity, and because of the small number of title sponsorships in which the corporation participates annually. This investment in resources is justified when considering the valuable attention the corporation receives as a principal benefactor.
In contrast to the limited numbers of title sponsorships, large corporations respond to many more requests for small sponsorships. In fact, for nationwide companies having several regional offices, it is not unusual to receive many hundreds of requests annually. Although each of these small sponsorships entails a smaller donation, often for a one-time event, the administrative burden in processing the requests is comparable to that required for title sponsorship agreements. Indeed, for each small sponsorship request, the corporation still must review and approve the request, provide official logo images to the charity, obtain the charity's consent to the terms and conditions of the use of the logo, monitor the charity's use of the logo, and provide brand collateral updates to all parties currently registered. Realistically, however, for these small sponsorships, the small donation and limited public exposure of the event do not justify a huge expenditure of resources by the corporation. The corporation would therefore prefer a more streamlined approach that automatically processes a request for small sponsorship. The process would preferably satisfy the due diligence for which the corporation is responsible in protecting its marks, while at the same time would use as little of the corporation's administrative resources as possible.
As a hypothetical example, consider the donation request mentioned above for the camp outing of Troop 288 of the Atlanta Area Council Boy Scouts of America. The request would likely include a statement of the event to be sponsored, the amount of the requested donation, and particulars about the event, such as the date, time, and location. The representative of the Boy Scouts would most likely contact a public relations employee, a customer service representative, or a marketing representative of the corporation. Often, the contacted person would not have the ultimate authority to approve the sponsorship, the means to forward official corporate trademarks and logos, or the expertise to educate the Boy Scout representative on the proper use of the trademarks and logos.
As this scenario repeats for each of the many small sponsorship requests, the administrative resources of the corporation quickly become overwhelmed. Further complicating the process is the reality that the corporation receives multiple requests at different points of contact within the corporation, spread across different regional offices and business units. Without a central approval mechanism, the corporation lacks a consistent, coherent voice, and has difficulty in tracking and responding to requests. Consequently, its reputation for community involvement can be tarnished.
In response to this need, some corporations have developed trademark and logo licensing programs to handle the large number of requests for trademark and logo use. Two known examples of these programs are the Sun Microsystems Logo and Certification Program and the Cisco Systems Logo Program. According to the Sun Microsystems program (see the Sun Microsystems web site at www.sun.com/logos/dot-com/static.html), a person requesting use of Sun's logo must first read and accept Sun's Trademark Agreement. The requester views the agreement online and enters into the agreement by clicking on an “accept” button, in what is generally known as a “click-wrap” agreement. After accepting the agreement, the requestor completes a registration form and then downloads the Sun image.
In the Cisco program (see the Cisco Systems web site at www.cisco.com/logo/), a certified individual, a program partner, or a company affiliated with Cisco can obtain Cisco logos that advertise the business relationship that the person or company has with Cisco. In each case, the Cisco web site provides the individual or company with general rules on how to use the Cisco logos, along with electronic mail (e-mail) links through which requests must be submitted. The Cisco representatives who receive the e-mail evaluate each request individually and grant permission based on Cisco's discretion. The Cisco web site also posts policies regarding its trademarks and copyrighted materials, and a policy that specifically addresses the use of Cisco trademarks and copyrighted materials on the Web.
Unfortunately, these conventional license tracking systems only partially solve the problems associated with managing sponsorships. In particular, these conventional systems focus narrowly on the trademark and logo aspects of the process, in which a requestor reviews and accepts an agreement, and downloads an image for use in promotional materials. The systems do not, however, address the initial inquiry to the corporation and the corporation's approval of the sponsorship, which must occur before a requestor can even proceed with the procurement of the trademarks or logos. Furthermore, once the image is downloaded, the systems do not monitor the actual use of the trademarks or logos to confirm compliance with the stated guidelines. Thus, prior art systems do not provide any kind of follow-up mechanism to track, archive, or oversee the charities' use of the trademarks and logos.